Electrical connectors typically include housing means having a plurality of terminal receiving passageways extending therethrough and in which are disposed electrical terminal members. The internal structure of the housing means provides means that cooperates with portions of the terminal members to secure the terminal members within the housing. Electrical contact terminals are retained in connector housings in a variety of conventional ways. Certain retention methods permit removal of the terminal while others do not. Conventional methods for permitting removal include integrally forming locking fingers on internal passageways of a connector or with a separate retainer clip, the fingers extending laterally at an appropriate angle to engage stop surfaces along the terminal surfaces to secure the terminal against withdrawal and are deflectable away from the terminal and away from the stop surfaces by a tool inserted into the passageway alongside the terminal whereafter the terminal is withdrawn such as for repair or replacement. The locking fingers of the housing or locking clip are initially deflected outwardly by the terminal during insertion and are tool deflectable for terminal removal.
A variety of retention clips are known, which mostly comprise cylindrical metal sleeves which are stamped and formed to have locking fingers which engage an annular collar of a terminal and which are retained in the passageway such as by locking lances. It is desirable that the tool and method used to remove terminals from a connector be one that allows the terminal to be removed without requiring complete dismantling of the electrical connector. Additionally it is desirable that the terminals be replaceable from the front or mating face of the connector so that a connector mounted to a circuit board for example would not require removal of the connector from the circuit board to repair and/or replace only one damaged contact member. One such example is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,174, which discloses a modular connector assembly and a filtered terminal member that is releasably mounted in a connector housing. The terminal member is mounted into and is releasable from the front mating face of the housing.
In order to replace such a contact terminal member, it is necessary to insert a tool into the housing to deflect latching means or other securing means to enable the terminal to be released and removed. One such tool, as known in the art, comprises a tubular member having a cavity extending partially therein for receiving a terminal member. The internal surface of the tubular member includes an inwardly extending projection or dimple, which is designed to frictionally engage the terminal member and grip the member while it is withdrawn from the connector. The cavity of the tool is sufficiently long enough to receive the terminal member therewithin and to reach beyond the latching means securing the terminal member within the housing and to allow the terminal member to be withdrawn from the housing. One disadvantage of a tool of this type is that the dimple provides only a small surface area for gripping the terminal member, thus the tool may fail to grip the terminal member securely enough to effect complete withdrawal of the terminal member from the connector housing. Another disadvantage of a tool of this type is that the wall as the tube is continuous and during use, portions of the damaged terminal member being removed may become damaged, break off and become lodged within the tubular member thus rendering the tool ineffective for subsequent use until the broken portion is removed from the tool's cavity. Since the presence of the broken portion inside the tubular cavity can not be seen by the user, the partially blocked cavity may in fact not be discovered until the tool is used on a subsequent occasion to remove a terminal member. It is desirable therefore, to have a means, preferably visual, to assure that an extraction tool is not blocked or partially blocked by a broken terminal member.